Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment: A …Organizational Climate Organizational climate refers to the interpretative frameworks shared by employees regarding the priorities

Presented by

Paul Hanges, University of Maryland

Martha Kyrillidou, Association of Research Libraries

Quantitative and Qualitative Methods for Libraries

Athens, Greece

May 25, 2011

Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment: A Value-based Approach

Manifested through the ARL ClimateQUAL® assessment protocol

http://www.climatequal.org/

ClimateQUAL® Assessment

Measures staff

perceptions concerning:

• the library's commitment

to the principles of

diversity

• organizational policies

and procedures, and

• staff attitudes

Organizational Climate

� Organizational climate refers to the interpretative

frameworks shared by employees regarding the

priorities of their organization and it helps them

understand what behavior is rewarded,

supported, and expected in the organization

(Schneider, 1990).

� Employees develop these organizational

perceptions as a result of their attempts to make

“sense” of the policies, practices, and

procedures endorsed and enacted in an

organization.http://www.climatequal.org/


Healthy Organization

• A healthy organization is one that is responsive to

its environment

• ASA Cycle

Population

Attraction

Selection

Attrition

Organizational

Climate

The Healthy Organization

� Hanges, Aiken, & Chen (2008)

� An organization that is responsive to its

environment

Organization Environment

Goals & Research Question for Project

� Develop a tool that assesses the “health” of a library.� Whether the policies, procedures and practices of a library are

supporting its mission and facilitating meeting current and future customer needs.

� Develop large database of norms to help libraries interpret their results.

� Develop an active community of libraries that share experiences and interventions to improve the effectiveness of libraries participating in community

� Track changes in libraries over time to permit objective feedback regarding effectiveness of attempted practices/interventions.

� Empirical validation of the healthy organization theory.


Scales:� Climate for Deep Diversity

� Climate for Psychological Safety

� Climate for Justice

� Climate for Innovation: Co-Workers

� Climate for Continual Learning

� Climate for Leadership

� Climate for Teamwork

� Climate for Demographic Diversity

� Climate for Customer Service



Scales:� Climate for Deep Diversity

� Climate for Psychological Safety

� Climate for Justice

� Climate for Innovation: Co-Workers

� Climate for Continual Learning

� Climate for Leadership

� Climate for Teamwork

� Climate for Demographic Diversity

� Climate for Customer Service


Climate for Deep Diversity

Valuing Diversity

� reflects the extent to which the organization

values diversity and diversity-related

initiatives

� Sample question

� “This organization values the different

perspectives that employees bring to the

workplace”


Climate for Psychological

Safety

@ refers to the degree to which an organization or

teams therein encourage employees to freely

share opinions with each other and with

management. An organization with a climate for

psychological safety provides a safe

environment for self-expression.

Sample question

� “As an employee in this library one is able to

bring up problems and tough issues”


Organizational Climate for

Justice

� @ reflects the degree to which the organization

has policies, practices, and procedures that treat

employees fairly and justly.

� Dimensions

� Distributive Justice

� Procedural Justice

� Interpersonal Justice

� Informational Justice



Justice

Distributive Justice

� reflects the employees’ perceptions regarding

the extent to which the rewards that they

receive is adequate given their level of effort

and work

� Sample question

� “Do the rewards in your division reflect the

effort that division members put into their

work”



Justice

Procedural Justice

� addresses the fairness of the procedures

used to come to those outcomes (i.e.

performance evaluations, amongst others)

� Sample question

� “Have the procedures used to determine

rewards been applied consistently”



Justice

Interpersonal Justice

� refers to the extent to which other people in

the workplace, such as supervisors, treat an

employee fairly

� Sample question

� “Has the authority figure who determines

rewards treated division members in a polite

manner”



Justice

Informational Justice

� refers to whether or not an employee has

access to the information he/she needs. This

type of justice indicates that transparency is

imperative to an employee’s sense of justice

in the workplace.

� Sample question

� “Has the authority figure who determines

rewards for your division explained

procedures thoroughly”


Climate for Innovation: Co-

Workers

@ refers to the extent to which co-workers

encourage each other to share and come up

with innovative solutions.

Sample question

� “Co-workers tell each other about other new

information that can be used to increase job

performance”


Climate for Continual Learning

@ refers to the extent to which an organization has

policies, practices, and procedures that

emphasize continued employee education.

Sample question

� “There is excellent on-the-job training”


Climate for Leadership

� @ assesses the nature of organizational

leadership and whether leaders have good

working relationships with employees and the

extent to which they are trusted by employees. It

also measures the extent to which leaders are

seen as authentic and perceived to be truly

passionate about customer service.

Dimensions

� Leader Member Relationship Quality

� Authentic Transformational Leadership



Leader Member Relationship Quality

� refers to the quality of an individual’s

relationship with their immediate supervisor

� Sample question

� “I can count on my immediate supervisor to

support me even when I’m in a tough situation

at work”



Authentic Transformational Leadership

� Such a leader is ethical, honest, and inspiring.

Employees of such leaders report them as

being consistent in their actions, and that they

truly believes what they claim to believe.

� Sample question

� “My immediate supervisor is convincing when

communicating his/her vision”


Climate for Teamwork

@ in an organization is embodied by enacting

policies, practices, and procedures that

emphasize the importance and usefulness of

teamwork.

Dimensions

� Employee Belief in Benefits of Teamwork

� Structural Facilitation of Teamwork



� Employee Belief in Benefits of Teamwork

� concerns employees’ opinions of the

usefulness and importance of teamwork

� Sample question

� “Teamwork is important to completing work in

this organization”


Climate for Demographic

Diversity

� @ reflects the extent to which the library has

policies, practices and procedures that support

diversity among minority and majority

employees.

� Dimensions

� Race

� Gender

� Rank

� Sexual Orientation


Climate for Demographic

Diversity

Sample question:

� “The [race/gender/rank/sexual orientation] of

a team/work unit member does NOT affect

how they are valued on this team/work unit”



� Structural Facilitation of Teamwork

� refers to the degree to which the

organization’s structure and policies facilitate

and encourage teamwork

� Sample question

� “The structure of this organization helps

facilitate teamwork”


Climate for Customer Service

@ in an organization is embodied by enacting

policies, practices, and procedures that clearly

indicate the importance and value of customer

service.

Sample question

� “Library employees have the job knowledge

and skills required to deliver superior quality

work and service”


Organizational Attitudes

� The organizational attitude measures included in

the ClimateQUAL® are different reflections of

the current workforce’s morale.

� In other words, these measures can be thought

of as an assessment of the current health of the

employed workforce.



� Scales:

� Task Engagement

� Organizational Commitment

� Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

� Organizational Withdrawal

� Job Satisfaction

� Team Psychological Empowerment in the

Workplace

� Work Unit Conflict



� Scales:

� Task Engagement

� Organizational Commitment

� Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

� Organizational Withdrawal

� Job Satisfaction

� Team Psychological Empowerment in the

Workplace

� Work Unit Conflict


Task Engagement

� @ refers to the extent to which an employee is

interested in and engaged in his/her work.

� Sample question

� “The work I do is very important to me”


Organizational Commitment

� @ refers to the extent to which an individual

employee is dedicated to staying with, and feels

positively about, this organization.

� Sample question

� “I am willing to put in a great deal of effort

beyond that normally expected in order to

help this organization be successful”


Organizational Citizenship

Behavior

� @ is an activity not included in an employee’s

job description that they nonetheless conduct to

improve the organization. While not a formal part

of anyone’s job, most organizations cannot work

as efficiently as they do without employees

doing some OCBs

� Sample question

� “Give up time to help others who have work or

non-work problems”.


Organizational Withdrawal

� @ refers to the actions that an employee may

engage in that distance themselves from the

organization and reflect intentions to leave the

organization.

� Sample question

� “How often do you explore other job

opportunities by checking job listings or want

ads”


Job Satisfaction

� Our measure of job satisfaction uses one

question to assess how satisfied an individual is

with their job. Job satisfaction is measured with

a 7 point scale (1 = least satisfied; 7 = most

satisfied).


Team Psychological

Empowerment in the Workplace

� @ reflects the extent to which an individual

feels they can contribute to their team.

� Sample question

� “My impact on what happens in my team/work

unit is large”.


Work Unit Conflict

� @ reflects the amount of disagreements within

team members.

� Dimensions

� Interpersonal Conflict

� Task Conflict


Work Unit Conflict

� Interpersonal Conflict

� refers to the amount of personal or emotional

conflict amongst a work unit

� Sample Question

� “How much jealousy or rivalry is there among

members of your unit”


Work Unit Conflict

� Task Conflict

� refers to the disagreements coworkers have

over how to complete their tasks

� Sample Question

� “How often do the members of your unit

disagree about which procedure should be

used to do your work”



2000 Partnered with UMD Industrial/Organizational

Psychology to administer first Survey � Goals: examine diversity climate and culture of

library and gather baseline data

2004 Repeated Survey� Expanded goals: examine managerial practices,

team development and continual learning

2008 Repeated Survey� First electronic administration of survey and

participant in ARL’s Statistics & Measurement

Program

UM Libraries Survey History


Participation by Year

Year InstitutionStaff

Responses

Response

Rate

2007

Texas A&M University 211 86%

University of Arizona 93 53%

University of Connecticut 94 76%

University of Iowa 147 82%

University of Kansas 140 79%

2008

Arizona State University 165 54%

Cornell University 307 72%

Duke University 202 80%

Emory University 187 68%

Kansas State University 92 81%




Responses

Response

Rate

2008

New York University 166 45%

Northwestern University 142 74%

University of Houston 81 78%

University of Maryland 180 63%

University of Massachusetts, Amherst 105 77%

2009

George Mason University 100 68%

Illinois State University 73 78%

Johns Hopkins University 128 75%

Oberlin College 155* 78%

University of California, Berkeley 223 51%

* Indicates inclusion of student staff




Responses

Response

Rate

2009

University of Hawaii at Manoa 63* 16%

University of Nebraska, Lincoln 136 95%

University of Nebraska, Omaha 52* 78%

University of Wyoming 73 89%

2010

Marquette University 64 90%

University of Illinois at Chicago 90* 32%

University of Texas 167 57%

Wayne State University 61 46%

2011University of Michigan 398 79%

University of North Carolina at Greensboro ? ?


Nesstar

• Working to provide access to institutional data

• Normative data:

- All Libraries

- All Individuals

- Web view

http://www.lib.umd.edu/ocda/


Results

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

ServiceClimate for Justice

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Overall

Service

Climate for Deep

Diversity

Climate for

Innovation and

Continual

Learning

Climate for

Psychological Safety

.19** to.23***


Connecting Improvement Strategies to Results

After receiving ClimateQUAL® results:

• What is going well in the Library that we want to continue doing?

• What uncovered issues should be tackled first?

• Are there any patterns that hint at problematic organizational

systems?

• Are there any patterns that suggest strategies that could improve

climate?

• Are there tools to support improvement strategies?

Implemented Improvement

StrategiesProcedural Justice:

• Library Assembly's Staff Affairs Committee's reviewed and proposed

revisions to selected library policies and procedures affecting staff.

University of Maryland

Organizational Citizen Behaviors:

• Created a new staff intranet with a number of “community building”

elements.

University of Iowa

Innovation:

• “Grants” for innovative projects are now given to staff whose proposals are

accepted by a peer review team

University of Connecticut

Distributive/Procedural Justices:

• Adapted the new university performance appraisal system for the libraries.

Johns Hopkins University



Mapping the ScalesClimateQUAL® -

OCDA Scales

Organizational

Systems

Organization

Development Tools

Improvement

Strategies /

Activities

Organizational

Climates

Climate for

Interpersonal

Justice (Fairness)

The degree to

which staff

perceives there is

fairness and

respectfulness

between

employees and

supervisors.

Institutional values

and expectations

Rewards /

Recognition

Focus groups

Interviews

Small group

discussions

Skills training

Create a staff

intranet to support

community

building.

Create a Staff

Recognition

Committee.

Implement a

quarterly or

biannual program

for recognizing

staff

achievements. http://www.climatequal.org/

Documents

Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment: A …Organizational Climate Organizational climate refers to the interpretative frameworks shared by employees regarding the priorities